Monday, January 7, 2019

here are 13 reasons why Montgomery County has to make budget cuts this year

Montgomery County will soon start working on its budget for next year, and officials already expect that they'll need to make big cuts. While the county's population is growing, its tax base has been shrinking, which means that we're trying to pay for more services with less money. How did this happen? Here are several reasons.

1) 6116 Executive Boulevard

This Montgomery County office building has been totally vacant for five years. All photos by the author unless noted.

This eight-story building, built in 1989, has been totally vacant since the National Institutes of Health left in 2013. As a result, its value has fallen 64% over the past decade and the building went into foreclosure in 2014 because the owners weren't collecting rent. It's one of 19 office buildings in Montgomery County that are either fully vacant or will be soon, all of which are outside the Beltway.

2) One Discovery Place

Discovery Communications' soon-to-be-former headquarters.

Twenty years ago, Discovery Communications moved from Bethesda to Silver Spring and helped usher in downtown's revitalization with a huge new headquarters that consumed four blocks and employed 2,500 people. However, they've slowly been shedding workers, and will move from Montgomery County to Tennessee and New York next year, with about 200 people remaining in Silver Spring. While the building has a new owner, no new tenants are on the horizon.

Developers across the DC area once said that this 53-acre field near Montgomery Mall in Bethesda was one of the most enviable properties in the region. But in 2006, as the housing boom hit its peak, plans fell through to put a hotel and resort, shopping, and over 400 luxury condos there. Today it's a big hole.

8) Tower Oaks

A sign advertising office space at Tower Oaks Park in Rockville.

Named for its big trees, this 84-acre office park along I-270 was never completed, meaning a lot of the towering oaks are still there. The City of Rockville says that the parts of Tower Oaks that have been built were nearly 30% vacant in 2016, which is actually less than another nearby office park, King Farm.

9) 4 Research Place

This office building is now a self-storage facility.

Not long ago, this 1960s-era office building would have been a hot commodity because it faced I-270, meaning companies could slap their name on the outside so thousands of commuters could see it. Two years ago, it became a self-storage facility, as the owners felt it was "obsolete."

The roofdeck of a new home by the Shady Grove Metro overlooks the school bus lot.

Montgomery County has just 13 Metro stations, and for over a decade, Montgomery County has been moving government warehouses and depots away from the Shady Grove station to make room for homes so people can live within walking distance of the train. It's been mostly successful, and a new neighborhood has arisen - except when the county tried to move a school bus parking lot, but discovered that nobody wanted the buses in their neighborhood. That means several hundred homes within walking distance of the train won't be getting built, at least for now.

Here's why this matters
What do these developments have to do with anything? On the most basic level, each of these things were opportunities for Montgomery County to collect tax revenue: property taxes from new homes and businesses, income taxes from new workers, and sales taxes from new shops. Instead, they’re each sitting fallow.

On top of that, some of these projects may never come to fruition. In the 1990s, the county’s highest office vacancies were in urban areas. Since then, there’s been a broad shift towards urban living, and county residents and businesses alike are seeking close-in, transit-rich locations like Silver Spring and Bethesda.

Fortunately, we can already see what the solutions look like. Pike & Rose transformed a dying strip mall as a walkable neighborhood with green space. To draw people who don’t want to drive as much, isolated office parks are adding shops, housing, and new transit options. And we need to keep investing in places that already have the urban features people want, like Silver Spring and Wheaton.

But those things require leadership and vision from the county itself. Twelve years ago, former county executive Ike Leggett ran on a slow-growth platform, but as the Great Recession wreaked havoc on the county's finances, he slowly embraced bringing more investment here.

Last year, Montgomery County elected another executive who ran on a slow-growth platform, but times are very different now. Here’s hoping County Executive Marc Elrich rises to the occasion and actually embraces new people and jobs who can help pay for the things we want and need, and the kinds of communities that county residents and businesses desire.